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Plot

After his regeneration from their previous adventure, the Doctor
starts behaving erratically. He goes to the wardrobe and looking for a
new outfit and finds a glaring, mismatched, brightly coloured coat to
which he immediately takes a shine. Peri tells him that he could not go
outside wearing such an awful garb, to which the Doctor takes offence.

Two twins, Romulus and Remus Sylveste, receive a visitation from a
mysterious old man called Professor Edgeworth. They question how he
managed to get inside their house; he tells them he will return when
their father is there, then proceeds to abduct them and the trio
disappear. They arrive on a spacecraft in deep space. Edgeworth then
communicates with his superior, a slug-like creature called Mestor, who instructs Edgeworth to take the twins to Titan 3.

In the console room, the Doctor has a funny turn, quoting a poem about a Peri — a good and beautiful fairy in Persian mythology,
but one which used to be evil. The Doctor accuses her of being evil,
and of being an alien spy before rushing toward her and throttling her.
He catches a sight of his own manic face in a mirror and collapses in a
heap, releasing Peri. When she tells him that he tried to kill her, he
initially denies he could be capable of such an act, but seeing how
terrified of him she is, decides he must become a hermit on the
desolate asteroid Titan 3.

The twins' father contacts the authorities; he found Zanium in their
room — a sure sign of intergalactic kidnap. A Commander Lang begins the
pursuit and soon finds a suspicious ship previously reported missing.
He tries to contact it, but it enters warp drive — something that class of ship is not designed to do.

On Titan 3, as the Doctor contemplates a thousand years of solitude
and Peri expresses her disapproval, they hear the crash landing of a
craft. Examining its wreckage, they find the concussed body of
Commander Lang. They take him back to the TARDIS
where he reveals his whole squadron has been destroyed. Believing the
Doctor to be responsible, he points his gun at the Doctor and threatens
to kill him…

Peri pleads with Lang, telling him that the Doctor had in fact saved
him, but he faints away. The Doctor is not keen to treat Lang, more
concerned for his own life, but eventually agrees to Peri's persuasion.

Edgeworth argues with Romulus and Remus, making them do Mestor's
work. He scolds them for setting up a distress signal, so they are not
allowed to use electronic equipment to solve the equations they have
been set. An image of Mestor appears and gives the twins a more blunt
threat — work for him or have their minds destroyed.

On the TARDIS scanner, the Doctor and Peri see a building —
something which has no place on an uninhabited asteroid. Leaving Lang
behind, they find a tunnel which may lead to the building, but on
exploring find two aliens wielding guns. The Doctor cowers in fear and
pleads with them not to shoot him. They are led off and are brought
before Edgeworth. The Doctor claims to be a pilgrim to Titan 3, but
Noma, one of the aliens, says they are spies and should be shot. The
Doctor suddenly recognises Edgeworth as an old friend - Azmael, master
of Jaconda, whom he last saw two incarnations ago.
When the Doctor sees Romulus and Remus and discovers it is Azmael who
has abducted them, he is disgusted. Azmael teleports away with the
twins and the aliens, leaving the Doctor and Peri locked in the
building. The Doctor starts to break the lock's combination, but Peri
discovers Noma has set the base to self-destruct. The Doctor improvises
a solution to teleport them back to the TARDIS. Peri makes a successful
return, but the Doctor has not appeared when she sees the base explode
on the scanner…

A glimpse of the Doctor is seen appearing in the TARDIS; he was
delayed returning because he was using Peri's watch to synchronise
their arrival, but the watch had stopped. The Doctor is surprised at
Peri's compassion when she thought he had died.

On Jaconda, Mestor is seen putting one of the bird-like Jacondans to
death for a petty offence of stealing a few vegetables. Soon, the
TARDIS arrives, but instead of the expected beautiful planet the Doctor
is expecting, he, Peri and Lang find a desolate wasteland covered with
giant Gastropod trails. The Doctor is reluctant to go to the palace,
scared for his own life, but is persuaded to take Lang there in the
TARDIS. In the palace corridors they see murals depicting Jaconda's
history, depicting the slugs of myth - but it appears that they are now
all too real. After avoiding Gastropods, Lang gets stuck in their slime
trail.

Azmael takes the twins to his laboratory and shows them a store room
full of Gastropod eggs. Mestor arrives and tries to persuade them that
his aims are benevolent. Azmael begs him to stop reading his thoughts
and stop Noma watching his every move. He agrees and leaves. Azmael
explains to the Twins that Mestor usurped him as leader of Jaconda and
outlines a plan to draw two outlying planets into the same orbit as
Jaconda. The Twins' genius is required to stabilise those planets in
their new orbit. The Doctor, leaving Peri and Lang behind, finds
Azmael's lab. In a manic fit of pique, he attacks Azmael, but is
restrained by a Jacondan and the Twins. The Doctor apologises to Azmael
but demands to know what is going on.

Meanwhile, Peri is captured by Jacondan guards and brought before
Mestor. When Lang escapes to Azmael's lab and informs them what has
happened, the Doctor finally shows compassion for her when he thinks
she might die…

Mestor refrains from killing Peri immediately, finding her
appearance pleasing. Jacondan guards arrive in Azmael's lab and seize
the Doctor. The Doctor tells Mestor that he ought to allow him to
assist with the dangerous operation of moving the planets, as a single
mistake could blow a hole in that corner of the universe. Back the
laboratory, Azmael informs the Doctor the details of the plan to bring
the planets into the same orbit
— they will be placed in different time zones using time travel
technology that Mestor stole from Azmael. The Doctor realises that, as
the other planets are smaller than Jaconda, bringing them closer to
Jaconda's sun will lead to catastrophe. The Doctor enters the egg
storeroom, and is disturbed that they have no nutritional mucus. He
tries to cut one open with a laser cutter; the shell is impenetrable,
but the egg reacts slightly to the heat. The Doctor realises they have
been designed to withstand the heat of an exploding sun — the explosion
of the Jacondan sun will scatter the eggs throughout the universe. When
they hatch, the Gastropods will conquer the universe.

The one remaining Jacondan in the lab collapses dead, his mind burnt
out. Mestor had been using him as a monitor, and knows the full details
of what has been discussed. Peri, Lang and the Twins return to the
TARDIS, whilst the Doctor and Azmael go to confront Mestor. When Mestor
refuses to abandon his plans, the Doctor hurls a vial of acid taken
from the lab at him, but a force field protects Mestor from any harm.
Mestor threatens to possess the Doctor's mind and body, and
demonstrates by taking control of Azmael's body. Azmael tells him to
destroy Mestor's body before he can return to it, which he does with a
further vial. Then Azmael, in his last regeneration, forces himself to
regenerate — killing himself — and in doing so destroys Mestor. Dying,
Azmael says he has no regrets and that one of his fondest memories was
a time spent with the Doctor by a fountain.

The Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS; Lang decides to stay
behind on Jaconda to assist with their rebuilding. When Peri tells the
Doctor off for being rude, he reminds her that he is an alien, with
alien sensibilities: "I am the Doctor… whether you like it or not!"

The Doctor states that he has regenerated twice since his last
encounter with Azmael. This means that this last time (including the
incident at the fountain) occurred during the Doctor's fourth incarnation.

The Doctor is unusually violent at the start of this episode, even
attempting to strangle Peri. The intention was to create a Doctor that
was initially unlikeable, but would gradually reveal a kind-hearted
soul (glimpsed in Revelation of the Daleks). This was also intended to be a contrast to the instantly likeable Tom Baker and Peter Davison Doctors. However, in later interviews, director Peter Moffatt
said that the original idea was merely to have the Doctor in a much
more energetic state than he was during the Fifth Doctor's début story Castrovalva.
Colin Baker said during a 2003 documentary celebrating the series' 40th
anniversary that "the idea was that over the many, many years I would
be playing the part, the outer layers would gradually peel away,
revealing the kind-hearted soul."

Eric Saward intended for Azmael to be the hermit to whom the Doctor had spoken in his youth, referenced in The Time Monster. Anthony Steven misinterpreted the request and instead made Azmael a former academy tutor of the Doctor.[2] The Hermit character had already been introduced as K'anpo Rinpoche in Planet of the Spiders ten years before.

Anthony Steven worked very slowly on the scripts, offering many
strange excuses (purportedly saying that his typewriter had literally
exploded) and turning them in at a very late stage. Compounding things
were the fact that the scripts were viewed as being of poor quality and
too much for the show's budget by script editorEric Saward, who was forced to rework them at great length in a very short amount of time.[citation needed]

At least one aspect of Steven's original script featured the
Jaconda and Gastropods being dropped totally early in the fourth
episode without resolution to the plot, with the final battle taking
place in another dimension against a being called Azlan who was
controlling Mestor all along.

The cat badge worn by the Sixth Doctor on his lapel for this story
was hand-made and painted by Suzie Trevor, and purchased for the
programme from a specialist badge shop in central London. For each
subsequent story, the Doctor was to wear a different cat badge to
symbolise that he was a "travelling cat of different walks."

Besides being adjusted for the new Doctor, the opening credits underwent additional modifications with this episode. A prism-colour
effect is added and the series logo takes on a somewhat bluish hue
(which also results in it appearing slightly curved in comparison to
the version introduced during Tom Baker's era). The theme music remains the same version as that introduced in 1980. Prior to this, the opening sequences of the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Doctor
eras had incorporated a still photograph of the lead actor. For the
Sixth Doctor opening this was changed to using two photographs - one of
the Doctor with a serious expression which changes to a second image
showing the Doctor smiling. This limited animation would continue with
the opening sequence for the Seventh Doctor.

Fandom often holds the serial in a very low light, being regarded
as one of the very worst serials in the history of the series (indeed
in SFX #150 new series producer Russell T. Davies cites this story as "the beginning of the end" of Doctor Who). A 1997 poll by Doctor Who Magazine ranked the serial the second worst of all time (the Children in Need special Dimensions in Time was ranked lowest), while a 2003 poll by fansite Outpost Gallifrey ranked it worst of all, below even Dimensions in Time.

Shortly before the Doctor assaults Peri in a paranoid rage, he quotes the line "One morn a peri at the gate Of Eden stood disconsolate" and asks Peri to identify its author. The answer is Thomas Moore, in his poem Lalla Rookh.

The first two instalments of the BBV Stranger video series
appear to borrow the premise of the Doctor's desire to become a hermit
to atone for mistakes he has made. Since the Stranger is played by
Colin Baker and his companion Miss Brown is played by Nicola Bryant, it
is often viewed as a "What-If" scenario, despite the fact that the BBV
production could not legally use the Doctor Who characters.

A novelisation of this serial, written by Saward, was published in hardback by Target Books
in October 1985, and in paperback in March 1986. The cover illustration
originally featured Colin Baker. However when Baker's agent enquired
about a royalty, the decision was taken to not feature him on the cover
and a replacement was commissioned. This adaptation is notable for
Saward's convoluted attempt at explaining in detail how the
regeneration process works.

This story was released on VHS in May 1992. The tape was available exclusively through branches of Woolworths as part of a special promotion. A general release followed in February 1993.

A Commentary with Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kevin McNally was recorded in April 2008 for a planned DVD release on September 7 2009. This will also be the last of the Colin Baker years of Doctor Who to be released onto DVD.